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Changes in Legislation for DECs

Subject to regulatory and Parliamentary approval, from 9 January 2013, it will be a requirement that a Display Energy Certificate is displayed in a prominent place in buildings with a total useful floor area of between 500m2 – 999m that are occupied by a public authority and frequently visited by the public. The DEC for these buildings will be valid for 10 years. A 10 year validity period is the maximum permitted by EPBD2. It is Government policy when implementing new Directives not to go further than the minimum requirements.

At present, OR software, including ORCalc, which is used to produce the Display Energy Certificate and associated Advisory Report automatically produces a DEC ‘validity’ date of one year.

ORCalc will be amended in due course to address this issue. In the meantime, all DECs and Advisory Reports produced using existing Government-approved software are valid for the purpose of producing DECs for buildings of less than 1,000m2 and the associated Advisory Report. A one year and seven year ‘validity’ date on the DEC and Advisory Report respectively will not invalidate the documents.

Following the introduction of the new requirements, public authorities will be allowed a reasonable transitional period with which to comply, in line with the approach adopted when the requirement for DECs was first introduced on 1 October 2008.